About Us

The Helton Skin and Laser Institute is dedicated to helping you to look and feel your best through non-surgical procedures in a relaxing environment.

Our treatments and services feature the latest technologies available. Our staff is dedicated to offer you the best expert advice to help you achieve your desired results.

About Everything We Do

Acne is something that can affect from young to old, from male to female. The methods of taking care of acne are varied, anywhere from topicals to interventional programs, to this acne light that we have here called the Clear Light. What’s different from our institute is that we have programs especially designed for acne where we will see the patient every two weeks and we will do some sort of modality to help get their skin better. So it’s not only just the topical program, but it’s also the interventional program that we specialize in here.

So fillers, I mean, are just, there’s just so many good things happening with fillers. I, honestly, feel that plastic surgery or, at least, face lifts, will be obsolete within 10 years with the advances we’re making in fillers, and lasers, and Botox and things like that. The latest place for doing fillers is around the cheekbones and around, underneath the eyes. We get such a youthful augmentation with that, giving people their cheekbones back, not only women, but men as well. Men just look wonderful with it and it’s very subtle. It has a minimal amount of bruising so you can get back to work on, say you do it on a Friday, you can get back to work on a Monday without anybody knowing that you did anything.

Well, again, it’s budget versus desire. So you have to start with, initially, with what bothers the patient, and what bothers you the most and work with that because, really, beauty is about how you feel on the inside and not so much on how you look on the outside. So if I can make you feel good about yourself because you, literally, hate this wrinkle between your eyes, then that’s an easy fix. Once we fix that, then we move onto the next area that bothers you. And what I tell people is, you know, plan on doing something every three to six months. That way, we can just sort of nibble away at your appearance and make small improvements that won’t be noticeable to the rest of the world, but just constantly make you look better and better.

You know, people ask me what can I do to make myself look younger, and, essentially, the fountain of youth is three things–it’s Botox, lasers and fillers. And, essentially, with those three things, we can make you look five years younger than you are. Some people can actually look 10 years younger than you are, but our goal is to make you look as young as you can in your age group. When you start trying to look different than your age group, then that’s when you start to look silly, and our job is to help you look natural and keep your appearance the way it should be.

People often ask me how do I choose which laser I’m going to introduce to my business here, and, essentially, I won’t pick a laser that just came out on the market. Your latest, greatest laser you read about in Cosmopolitan is not the latest, greatest laser that you want used on yourself because we have to remember we’re physicians as well, and what happens is there’s short-term side effects and there’s long-term side effects. When you’re altering the structure of the skin with laser energy, we have to be absolutely sure of what’s going to happen to you six months later, one year later, two years later. So I often will not buy a laser until it’s been proven for at least a year if not two years. And the lasers being used here at Helton Skin and Laser have been proven, and track tested, and are the gold standard for laser facial rejuvenation on the market. We only use name brand lasers, only ones that have been proven and proven safe.

Frequently, I’m asked whether a mole’s abnormal or not. And the most important thing on deciding whether a mole is abnormal is whether it’s been changing, has been changing over the last two or three months, has it changed ever since the child was born. So how fast something changes makes a difference as well. Dermatologists look for things called A, B, C, D, which is Asymmetry, Border irregularity, Color and Diameter, which, basically, to the layperson, is it different from left to right, is it asymmetrical in shape. I, frequently, recommend that we do yearly skin exams on people, and then we can monitor their moles and remove them if necessary. Fortunately, I did a cosmetic surgery fellowship so if there’s a cosmetically elegant way of taking a mole off, I’ll be the person to be able to do that for you.

Almost all my patients are from referrals and that says a lot about the practice, that other people are able to send their friends and family to me and that means a lot to me. Part of the reason why they feel so confident and so happy to do that is the atmosphere we have here at Helton Skin. I spend 8 to 10 hours a day here so I like this place to be my home, and you can tell by looking around at how we’re decorated, that it looks like a home. I like people to feel like, you know, they’re coming to a place, not a, say, place of business, but a place where they can be with their friends and they can be comfortable. They can have a nice cup of coffee and come out feeling good about themselves.

Well, when I, initially, formed Helton Skin and Laser Institute, I designed it hoping to be able to fulfill all of the person’s cosmetic and dermatological needs, and that’s how The Institute started. We started, first, doing a little bit of Botox, and then we added fillers, and then we added hair laser, then we added, you know, other lasers until we were able to totally satisfy all your physical, cosmetic needs. Basically, if it’s on the outside of the body, if it’s in the skin, that’s something that we can take care of.

We have several SPF sunscreens here and all of them start in the SPF 30 range. We have a gel version, which is good for men because it dissolves, like, with alcohol and kind of gives you that Skin Bracer type feeling. We have a lighter application, a non-moisturizing sunscreen, then we have a sunscreen with a moisturizer, and my favorite sunscreen is the Cote Sunscreen, which contains only titanium and zinc so there’s no other chemicals in it, and that provides the highest SPF rating that we have.

Peter Helton, D.O.

Peter Helton, D.O. is the medical director of the Helton Skin and Laser Institute in Newport Beach, California. Dr. Helton specializes in non-surgical methods of improving his patient’s appearance. Using his artistic, creative and medical knowledge as one of the nation’s most renowned Cosmetic Dermatologists, his patients receive results that are second to none.

Sarah Bobich, PA-C

Sarah Bobich, P.A., joins Helton Skin & Laser Institute as a Physician Assistant. Sarah grew up in Chicago and graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, IL with a Bachelor of Science in Health Science and minor in Biology. Sarah then decided to attend Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA and graduated with a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies.

Mary Fishenfeld, RN

Mary Fishenfeld, R.N., joins Helton Skin & Laser Institute as a Registered Nurse Aesthetic Laser Specialist. After receiving her nursing degree from Riverside City College in 1978, Mary began work in California caring for pre and post-operative surgery patients.